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Elves
'Elves '''are a largely mysterious race who first made their appearance known around Y3A-350 when they settled in what is now called Londar and built Hyvern City. It is widely believed that the elves are magical in nature, or at least have some understanding of magic that humans do not as they seem to have an uncanny ability to manipulate nature to their benefit as well as having mysterious healing abilities. The elves were once a peaceful race of beings that spent much of their time nurturing the life around them but after the First War of the North, after the mainland elves were massacred, their peaceful nature turned largely reclusive and over time, many forgot that such beings had ever even existed. Back within The Veil, the rage and pain following the massacre fueled their anger for over 350 years until they finally retaliated in full force and began the Second War of the North. History The Origin of the Elves. Around two thousand years ago, a large tribe of humans known as the Lumerians, suddenly came into conflict with a warlike tribe of gnolls that had been passing through. The gnolls, hungry for bloodlust and excitement saw the Lumerian people as the sport they'd been craving and descended upon them in a swarm of crude blades and teeth. For weeks, the gnolls persisted in their attacks with wave after wave of onslaught, rotating out those that fought for fresh warriors and never letting the Lumerian people rest for more than a few hours at a time. The ravaging of the Lumerian people very nearly wiped them out, but for some miracle, they escaped their besieged homes and fled north to the great ocean that we now call The Abyss. Where once there were hundreds of Lumerians, now there were only tens. Backed up against the great black, they built boats and rafts, and seeing no alternative, braved the ocean and attempted a crossing. With no idea what would be awaiting them or what dangers lay in their path, the Lumerians departed the mainland of Athelon and sailed into the unknown. Almost a month of aimless drifting passed before they finally encountered The Veil. By now, their numbers were so few that it wasn't certain what would happen even if they did make landfall, the prospect of just dying out seeming to be a very real possibility. A great wall of mist surrounded a swirling vortex of wild magic, ripping and shredding the wooden hulls of their crude boats. Somehow, against all odds, they made it through The Veil and before them, rising out of the ocean, lay their saviour at last. The Isle of Elhaigh. When the surviving Lumerians finally came to shore, they numbered only twelve. Over time, their numbers slowly began to increase on the island thanks to the luscious flora and fauna that covered the surface. Plants and animals of sorts never before seen on the mainland flourished like a wildfire, utterly full of life. Due to the nature of the island, as with the plants and animals that lived there, the physiology of the Lumerians also began to change. The first thing to be altered was that their life spans began getting longer and longer, at first doubling but later tripling and then quadrupling to almost two hundred years, with some even living into their two hundred and twenties. Over the course of two thousand years, their facial features also began to change, genetic deformities such as their slightly pointed ears and more angular eyebrows became more common among the colony and their jaws became narrowed, resulting in their distinctive pixie-like faces. The more evident result of their physical changes was that their skin colour began to slowly lose its pigment and turn somewhat pale blue. Their hair, once a bright golden, became silver and then darkened to a deep blue. Occasionally a golden-haired baby will be born thanks to the recessive gene but it almost always turns silver with age. Over time, the colony began to worship the deity named Va'Leyar, for they believed that it was her divine doing that had bestowed upon them their paradise sanctuary. A statue of the goddess was created in her honour, carved from a single colossal crystal that had been found in the heart of the home mountain, becoming a symbol of their faith. At some point after they had firmly established their new home and first noticed the changes that were happening to them, the colony decided to abandon the name Lumeria as it only served to remind them of what had been lost and name themselves elves, after their new homeland Elhaigh. The Emergence of the Elves. After two thousand years of solitary seclusion from the rest of the world, a group of elves finally decided to leave their home island in search of more territory and to expand their kingdom. Having grown with and learned how to navigate The Veil, they could pass through without incident and so eventually stumbled upon a massive stretch of land that they named Londaran Arin. Their distant home. Just a few years after the elves first disembarked upon the mainland and had begun building their new homes, an elven wayseeker named Koren Waystrider happened upon an ancient stone fortress embedded within the higher reaches of the western side of the Highback Mountains. Curious and inquisitive by nature, he assembled a small team of hunters and other wayseekers and ventured into the ancient fortress. Whether they found anything within is not clear, but it was only a few short years later that the elves began building Hyvern City around that very fortress. Over the years, the entrance to the fortress was eventually destroyed or hidden and the Citadel built on top, forever concealing whatever lay beneath. Just two and a half hundred years later, a group of humans from Raelic, to the east, passed through the Albarond Mountains and encountered the elves for the first time. The First War of the North. The elves and the humans lived in relative peace together for well over four hundred years until around the year Y3A-1100 when relations started to turn sour. The Raelian humans had been growing in number for some time and slowly pushing into the elven territory, infesting the elven towns and villages like a plague. Before the elves really knew what was happening, half of the outer villages were exclusively occupied by humans. The elves resisted for a time, barring access to their towns and building fortifications to keep out the human menace, but everything they tried inevitably failed. A rift between the two nations was gradually forming, a divide of one side wishing to keep their land and their ways intact while the other wished to join together and live in tandem. Some of the elves were even in agreement with the humans and also wished to join their two peoples, but they were few and far between. Many of the elves saw the human ways of life as abhorrent and repulsive; the slaying of creatures for food and of the destruction that usually followed in their wake. They knew it wasn't their fault, but the humans inevitably destroyed everything the elves held dear and they couldn't see any way of changing their very nature. Over time, the elves steadily retreated to their capital, Hyvern City, reluctantly abandoning their outer villages in order to stay with their people and retain their ways, not really wanting to cause conflict. The humans, no longer restricted by the presence of elves in the outlying towns, expanded ever more until eventually all of Londar belonged to them. By the time the elves realised their mistake, it was too late and they were trapped. Despite attempts to converse with the queen of Raelic, the talks failed time and again. Once taken, the humans were reluctant to relinquish their hold over anything they had obtained. Tensions steadily rose between the two nations but the elves were hopelessly outnumbered and had nowhere else to go. It is uncertain what finally sparked the war, whether it was the elves in their attempt to reclaim some of their lost territories or whether it was the humans who had finally decided to be rid of the elves once and for all. The end result was that after only a couple of months, Hyvern City had been besieged, eventually destroyed and every elf within had been slaughtered. After losing contact with the mainland elves, a group of elves from Elhaigh decided to investigate the issue. They had known about the recent rise in tensions but hadn't fully realised how bad it had become. When they saw the utter destruction of their city and their people, rage and sorrow filled them. They returned to Elhaigh where they reported their findings. Angered by what had happened, the elves vowed to one day have their vengeance and take back their land. Post-First War of the North. For over three hundred and fifty years, the elves remained secluded on their island, unwilling to emerge for fearing the same fate of the mainland elves. Their pain and rage at what had happened festered in their hearts, changing them little by little. Their bitterness and hatred towards humans steadily increased until finally, they decided that it was time to take back their land. The Second War of the North. An army of elves, some two thousand in number, made the crossing to the mainland and immediately launched into their attack. The elves were merciless in their engagements, completely devoid of any remorse or pity. They swept across the land like a great scythe, cutting down all who stood in their way. These were not just a group of elven hunters and trackers seeking revenge, these were soldiers; born, raised and trained for the express purpose of reclaiming their lost land, these were the Night Hunters. Stories of the army spread like wildfire as people were alerted to the presence of this great force. They ravaged everything and everybody, scorching every village and every town they passed to the ground. In only a few weeks, half of the lowlands had been burnt. The humans were quick to pull together their defences but they had been utterly unprepared for this sudden engagement and with no trained force to combat against the elves, they had no chance of ever being able to fight back. Still, as more and more people fled to Hyvern City for refuge, the number of people willing to fight rose. Almost every able-bodied man and woman stood together on the walls of Hyvern City and somehow, against all odds, managed to repel each attack, staving off their destruction for another day. For near a month of besiegement, the humans trapped within the city fought for their survival. The Night Hunters, realising that they were unable to breach the defences, sought an alternative means of entering the city. Splitting off from the main army, a small group of elves journeyed south to a secret cave system that passed through the Highback Mountains. When they finally emerged from the ancient passages, the Citadel, located at the top of the city was the first sight that greeted them. The city fell shortly after. The small party of elves were killed but not before the council and most of the royal family had also fallen. Upon being told of the fall of the Citadel and seeing no alternative, King Renoveld pulled most of the defenders back from the front wall in order to organise a retreat and flee the city. The humans escaped the city and with the elves hot on their heels, fled far to the north to an ancient stone fortress known as Mistward Keep. There they found refuge within the stone walls and with nowhere else to go, stood their ground once more. The humans would have been wiped out then and there had their dwarven allies not arrived in the nick of time. The elves, seeing the arrival of the dwarves and their far superior weaponry, immediately broke off their assault and fled all the way back to Elhaigh. Post-Second War of the North. The elves, having suddenly realised what they had done and finally seeing themselves as the monsters they had become, relinquished their age-old grudge and set down their weapons, calling for peace. Both sides of the war had suffered greatly and neither one actively sought a third war and so the humans of Londar agreed to the peace. The elves, though having originally sought to regain their long-lost territory, now strangely found that they no longer even wanted it. The ground had been stained with blood and to take possession that land now, did nothing but sicken their hearts. Not to mention that they would only be inviting a third war further down the line when the humans began to encroach once more. Though their grudge had finally been settled, relations were still extremely tense for a very long time and even now, one hundred and fifty years later, very few elves ever journey out from their homeland. Culture Faith The elves believe that at one time in their history, there were many Eternals that roamed freely across the land, shaping and forming the world that they now live upon and bestowing their immense powers into their creations. Many of these Eternals were merely elementals and held power over only certain aspects of the world like fire and earth, some were more powerful and could manipulate the wild magics of the other planes, weaving and entwining the essence into objects of immense power. But above all of these was Va'Leyar, the Eternal of life. She was said to be the strongest and most caring of the Eternals, having the power to manipulate and bestow the very essence of vitality into creatures and breathe life into them. The elves believe that it was from her grace that they were saved in their time of crisis and given new life on Elhaigh. Within the elven capital city of Tyranor, deep inside the mountain that sits in the heart of Elhaigh, a large natural cavern houses a colossal, crystalline statue of their goddess, Va'Leyar. Hundreds of smaller statues and intricately carved murals of her and the other Eternals are scattered throughout their homeland with each piece of artwork depicting a great deed or story of the long-distant past. At the break of dawn and at dusk's twilight of every day, the High Priestess matriarch of the elven people journeys into the mountain with offerings of sweet-smelling incense and fruits from the gardens of life in order to appease Va'Leyar and thank her for her boundless blessings. Communing with the goddess is widely considered to be a deeply spiritual event that often takes tens of years of devotion and dedication to achieve, for by communing directly with her, they must be the sole representative of the entire elven nation, they must centre their entire lives around being , to be considered worthy and as such, only the most loyal of her subjects, the High Priestess, may enter the mountain and to do so without express permission given by the High Priestess herself is considered a great disgrace. The other elves, since prohibited from visiting the statue, are content to each hold within their hearts a place of peace and life with which they are to give back to the land each day in honour of Va'Leyar. When the High Priestess feels that her time is up and that she is about to die, it is her sacred duty to choose a second from her priestesses to join her before the crystalline statue so that the blessing of passage may be witnessed and consecrated. They remain seated within the cavern until the blessing of passage has been completed and the body of the High Priestess is set aflame atop a sacred pyre. ''The night elves, especially the druids, also have a close kinship with most of the Ancient Guardians, as all known living ancient guardians were last seen on Mount Hyjal. Cenarius is amongst the most ancient allies of the night elves.3 Aviana is the patron of the Druids of the Talon,50while Ursoc and Ursol are the patrons of the Druids of the Claw.51 Malorne, Aessina and Tortolla are also allies, having assisted the Guardians of Hyjal in the protection of the world tree.52 Omen, while still corrupted, lies at the heart of the Moonglade.53 The night elves also have close bonds with the Red, Green and Bronze Dragonflights. The great dragon aspects, Alexstrasza, Ysera and Nozdormu, were the ones to bless Nordrassil3 and the night elves have worked with them on many occasions since.3192552 Ysera is particularly important, as all druids assist her dragonflight in guarding the Emerald Dream.3 The night elves revere the moonsabers because their shimmering coats symbolize the goddess of the moon, Elune,54 and they once believed that seeing the dawnsaber breed in the wild was an ill omen.55 The dark-feathered bird of prey is often seen as a harbinger of doom amongst the druids of Teldrassil.56 According to the tales of the night elves, the first red-tailed chipmunk was colored so after the theft and consumption of a sacred apple.57 It is said that the Horn of Cenarius hold the power to call the spirits of all night elves. Origins Gender Roles Ageing Government Warfare Language Naming Technology Cuisine Customs Notes on Culture Appearance Elves are extremely similar to humans in almost every physical way bar a few key differences, they're typically the same average height, weight and physique as a human and from a moderate distance, one could quite easily be mistaken, but unlike humans, elves have slim, pixie-like faces that narrow at the jaw, creating a sharp and lean appearance. Their ears and eyebrows are much more pointed and angular, and their hair colours range from a dark blue/black to almost a bluish silver, though occasionally a golden or green-haired elf is born. Their skin is typically pale grey/white with a bluish hue and the women of the race have what appear to be slightly paler, blue stripes that cover their bodies from the neck down.